1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to a work holder for transforming a single piece of food product into a plurality of pieces of food product. There is also disclosed a food slicer and more particularly to a bagel slicer used for transforming a unity bagel into a plurality of bagel pieces.
2. Background Art
The preparation of food for cooking and eating usually involves cutting food items such as fruit, vegetables, meat, and dough-based products into smaller pieces for cooking or baking, combination with other items, and presentation to the consumer. For food items to be combined as slices with other foods, as in the preparation of bread, rolls, bagels, or other items too thick for eating alone and uncut, the slicing process is time-consuming, sometimes dangerous to the preparer, and often error-prone in that the results of a slicing operation can be uneven, unattractive, or even unusable in producing the final dish. These problems can result in food wastage, injury, and delays in preparation which are unacceptable in most meal preparation processes.
Bagels present unique problems in preparing a sandwich. A bagel sandwich is made by slicing the bagel in half on a plane perpendicular to the axis of the hole in the bagel. Bagels are quite firm and thick, and they present considerable resistance to a cutting blade when being cut. In addition, the outer surface of the bagel is smooth, round, and two-dimensionally convex, making it highly unstable for cutting except when laid flat on a surface and cut horizontally. Horizontal cutting requires more energy and time than downward (vertical) cutting, both to execute the cut and to hold the bagel in position.
The smooth, convex, outer surface of the bagel presents an additional problem when attempting to cut the bagel into thirds or multiple slices on planes perpendicular to the axis of the hole. Most cutting blades directed at a surface at an angle tend to slide along that surface rather than ‘bite’ into it for the cut. Consequently, food preparers do not often try to make bagel sandwiches or other multilayered bagel preparations using conventional cutting methods.
A bagel is most safely cut by laying it on a flat surface, placing the palm of one hand on the top surface of the bagel, and engaging the outer circular edge of the bagel with a serrated bread knife. The knife is moved parallel to the plane of the support surface while the person keeps the fingers of the hand on the bagel and out of the cutting plane of the knife. In certain cases, thinner bagel materials are desired to enable a food preparer to stuff more fillings such as meat, cheese slices, vegetables, etc. into a sandwich style product. This often requires multiple cuts of a bagel or shaving of cut surfaces upon producing a first initial cut. Such practice not only tremendously increases the amount of food preparation effort but also increases the potential for injury due to accidental cuts.
Many people are injured while cutting bagels. The source of the injuries is often improper equipment or improper procedures. For example, many people will use an ordinary, non-serrated knife. Such knives more easily slip on the smooth outer convex surface of the bagel and cut the hand that holds the bagel. Other injuries occur when the knife slices through the bagel into the hand holding the bagel, or when the bagel is cut while standing it on its convex edge.
The prior art has presented several devices which attempt to solve these problems. U.S. Pat. No. 2,396,443 of Singer discloses a multiple slicing device in which a multiplicity of straight and parallel knives are rigidly held in place. There is no shield protecting a user from injuring himself with these knives, and the Singer device is relatively unsafe to use.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,453,220 of Gustafson discloses a slicing knife assembly comprised of a body portion and a blade. Although one side of the Gustafson knife assembly is shielded, the other side of the blade, and its bottom surface, are unshielded.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,981,078 of Alberti discloses an electric knife with two mutually reciprocating cutting blades. As with the Singer and Gustafson devices, the user of the Alberti device has ample opportunity to cut himself as well as a bagel, the cutting blades of Alberti also not being shielded.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,982 of Gibson provides a handheld bagel sheer whose blade is shielded by legs on either side of such blade. However, the tip of the blade is not shielded, and the tip of such blade is not rigidly fixed in place on both of its ends. Thus, such blade is free to slide along the surface of the bagel and/or deflect during the cutting process.
U.S. Pat. No. 751,251 of Bollinger et al. (hereinafter Bollinger) discloses a two bladed bread knife, where the blades are vertically and horizontally offset. Although there are two blades, the knife is incapable of making two complete cuts in one slicing action as one of the knives is vertically offset.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,037 of Gerson et al. (hereinafter Gerson) discloses a slicing device having two racks of parallel thin blades intermeshed in a cross disposition for slicing objects by a pushing action. However, although having overlapped blades, Gerson is not suitable for making reciprocating cuts or sawing as the pushing action would crush an object intended to be cut.
U.S. Pat. No. D325,326 of Parven (hereinafter Parven) discloses a device which appears to be a single bladed knife for sliding bread or bagel. However, it fails to disclose a knife that is safe to use as the knife is exposed despite what appears to be a handle which runs the entire length of the knife.
It is an object of this invention to provide a blade assembly adapted to cut bagels that is safer to use and more effective than prior art blade assemblies.